Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Top Jobs in Russia Ever More Likely to Be Filled by Children of Elite, Petersburg Politics Foundation Says

Paul
Goble

Staunton, May 30 – The Petersburg
Politics Foundation says that ever more positions in the Russian political
Olympus will be handed down from fathers to sons or daughters, thus reducing
still further social mobility and the renewal of elites by means of the
introduction of fresh forces from outside the current charmed circle.

One can see, the report says, “that
such an aristocratic scenario of modeling the transit of power will be ever
more often copied in the coming years, all the more so because other scenarios
of transition” including classic public political competition, and different
variants of the use of ‘a cadres reserve’ still do not have the necessary
history of success.”

The report argues that this pattern is likely
to come to predominate at the regional level even before it does in Moscow, a
somewhat unexpected conclusion given the Kremlin’s ability to shake things up
by appointing outsiders at will.

But many will find the most useful
part of the new report the listing of heirs likely to succeed to their parent’s
position. Among them are Sergei Ivanov, junior, the son of the former head of the
Presidential Administration; Vladimir Kiriyenko, the son of the current deputy
head of the PA; Andrey Murov, son of the former federal security organization; Dmitry
Patrushev, son of the Security Council secretary; Aleksey Rogozin, son of the new
Roskosmos head; and Petr and Pavel Fradkov, sons of former prime minister Mikhail
Fradov.

`“It is curious,” Politsovet observes,
“that Katerina Tikhonova who is widely assumed to be the daughter of Vladimir
Putin is not among the leading group.Her career success the experts label as ‘moderate.’”